Help in Hufflepuff
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Professor Sprout is ill, but this doesn't prevent her from caring for her little badgers. Or do they have to reverse the roles? Just a little, fluffy drabble. Completely AU, sick!Pomona Sprout. Set in Harry Potter's second Hogwarts year.


**Help in Hufflepuff**

**~ by Healer Pomfrey ~  
**

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._

_-----_

_

* * *

  
_

Pomona Sprout let herself sink in the chair behind her desk in exhaustion. Ever since the day before, when she had prepared the mandrakes for the second-year students to place them into larger pots during that morning's class, she had felt under the weather. At first, she had thought it was just a cold, considering that her nose was running like mad and she had felt slightly nauseous; however, by the time she had observed the students re-pot the mandrakes, she had felt outright ill. Her whole body was sore, and she felt cold sweat appear on her forehead.

'_Maybe it's the flu, but I only have to get through the afternoon classes and then I can go to bed_,' she thought and fiercely rubbed her forehead against her tremendous headache, deciding to make the students take surprise tests, so that she wouldn't have to do anything but could rest at her desk. Not feeling hungry anyway, she prepared the tests and took a small nap, until the sounds of the students entering the greenhouse woke her up.

Pomona spent the afternoon classes staring into space, ignoring the students groaning and moaning over their tests as well as possible. She was brought back to reality when Cedric Diggory, the fifth year prefect, suddenly stood in front of her.

"Professor," he caught her attention, "the class is over, but everyone is still writing. Do we have to hand in the tests now?"

"Yes; thank you, Mr. Diggory," Pomona said gratefully. "Time over. Please hand in your tests," she announced immediately, looking forward to be able to retreat to her private quarters as soon as the last student would have left the greenhouse.

By the time she finally reached her quarters, she felt absolutely miserable. She magically exchanged her school clothes with comfortable pyjamas, fetched a wet towel, a pack of tissues and a mercury thermometer from the bathroom and went to bed. '_Thank God it's the weekend, so I have enough time to recover_,' she thought as she lay deep under her covers with the cool towel on her forehead and the thermometer in her mouth, impatiently staring at the charmed display of time on the ceiling to assess when the reading had to be finished. Finally, she pulled the thermometer out with shaking hands and tried to find the end of the blue line that was supposed to mark the temperature.

'_I must be too stupid tonight_,' she thought when she finally found the end at a much unexpected spot. It showed 40.5 degrees. '_I've never had such a high fever before_,' Pomona thought in shock, wondering if she should call Madam Pomfrey. '_No, I'll just sleep until curfew_,' she decided and set her alarm clock, before she once more nestled deep under the covers and drifted off to sleep in the blink of an eye.

When the alarm alerted her to the fact that it was curfew, she slowly dragged herself out of bed, pulled her warmest jumper over her pyjamas, followed by her robes, and stepped through the connecting door into the Hufflepuff common room.

Ever since Pomona had become Head of House, she had made it a habit to look in on all the girls' dormitories after curfew, while the seventh year prefect did the same for the boys' dormitories. From her own experience as a student, she knew that it was important to have an adult, to whom one could speak before going to sleep if necessary. She had often suffered from the fact that her own Head of House had never bothered to check on her students. Too often, there had been questions that couldn't be answered because of the lack of an adult in the House, and very often, she had wished for an adult to just listen to her problems before she had to go to bed. Ever since she had become Head of House, much fewer Hufflepuff students had to be sent to Poppy because of homesickness, and nothing, not even her illness, could prevent Pomona from fulfilling her duty towards her little badgers.

Just like every other evening, Pomona headed to the first years' dormitory first and sat on a chair by the window sill, and as usual, the girls gathered around her and told her how their day had been, how mean Professor Snape had been, in spite of knowing that she would protect whatever action he might have taken, and that Professor McGonagall had come to their table and asked where she was, since she had missed lunch and dinner.

"I wasn't feeling too well," Pomona admitted, knowing that she wanted nothing more than to return to bed. "Is there anyone who wants to speak about something in private? Otherwise, I'd like to keep this short today..."

"You should go to bed, Professor; you don't look good," one of the girls told her, and the others agreed eagerly.

"There is nothing urgent, and we all understand."

"Please get well soon."

"Shall we escort you to the hospital wing?"

"No thank you. It's not that bad," Pomona replied, producing a fake smile on her face. "I'll just quickly finish my round. Good night, girls." With that she slowly dragged herself out of the room and to the second years' dormitory. '_Maybe it's not the flu_,' she mused on her way, '_because my throat isn't really sore, only my head and my limbs, and I feel so dizzy, probably from the high fever_.'

By the time Pomona reached the second years' dormitory, she had the impression as if she was riding on a rollercoaster. Not sure if she'd manage to keep herself upright as far as until the windowsill, she tried to pull a chair over from next to Susan Bones' bed in order to sit down as fast as possible.

"Professor, are you all right?" Susan enquired in concern as she steadied her gently and decided to help her sit on her bed instead.

"Yes, I'm just a bit dizzy. I'm sure it'll pass soon. How was your day? Is there anything to discuss?"

"Professor, you look like death warmed up," Hannah Abbott said worriedly.

"And you're burning up," Susan added. "I think we should call Madam Pomfrey."

By now, Pomona felt so sick that she didn't protest when the students made her lie down on Susan's bed and instructed her to stay put, while two girls ran away to fetch the Mediwitch. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief as she slowly drifted away from consciousness.

Pomona jerked back to awareness to an ice-cold hand on her forehead. It was Poppy, who glared at her in anger and concern at the same time.

"Pomona, what exactly is wrong apart from your life threatening high temperature?" the Healer asked urgently.

"My head hurts. Everything hurts, and I'm dizzy. Perhaps the flu," Pomona replied wearily, "but I already feel much better."

"That's only because I spelled the strongest fever reducer I have into your system," Poppy explained. "And no, I've already ruled out the flu. Pomona, which plants did you deal with today? It could be poisoning, since I can't find any kind of virus infection."

"Only mandrakes with the second years."

"Mandrakes," Poppy repeated, thinking feverishly. "You didn't touch anything that might act with mandrakes like birch nut or chestmint plants?"

"I only..." Pomona trailed off, deep in thoughts. "Yes, maybe I cut the birch nut plants right before I prepared the mandrakes yesterday, but..."

Poppy once more waved her wand over the professor and sighed. "That's it, Pomona. I'll make Severus brew the antidote right away. For the time being, you're going to remain where you are." She pointed her wand at Pomona's head to take her temperature once again. "Your fever is still at forty-one degrees; therefore, I don't want to move you." Turning to the girls, who were sitting on the other beds, observing the scene in concern, she said, "I will leave your Head of House here. Please make sure that she remains in bed, and call me immediately if there are any difficulties." Waving her wand at the free area in the middle of the room, she conjured a bed. "I'm sorry, Ms. Bones, but you'll have to content yourself with this bed for the night."

"No problem and we're going to take turns to watch the professor anyway," Susan replied softly.

Poppy nodded contentedly. "I'll be back in an hour. Thank you for taking care of your professor, girls. You have probably saved her life. One hundred points to Hufflepuff." With that, Poppy hurriedly left the room, throwing a last glance at her colleague, who had already drifted back to sleep, apparently feeling very comfortable in her students' dormitory.

**The End**


End file.
